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3000 BCE
Obelisk
Early Egyptians told time by looking at the shadow made by an unmoved object in the sun. An obelisk is a vertical structure with four sides. -
Period: 3000 BCE to
Ways of telling time
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300 BCE
Sundial
Babylonians used what was called a sundial. This is a flat circle that has a 12-hour face on it with a a vertical object that created a shadow on the face when the sun was cast upon it. -
550
Water Clocks
The early Greeks and Egyptians, and later the Chinese, used a clepsydra, or a water clock. These were devices that allowed water to flow from one container to another through a small hole. Lines were drawn on the containers that represented what time it was based on where the water level was. -
1050
Hourglass
These were two containers on top of one another connected by a small opening where a material, such as sand or water, would drop from the top container to the bottom. -
1300
Mechanical Clocks
These devices used the physics principles of weight and balances to tell time over a 12-hour period. These devices eventually used pendulums, which improved the accuracy. -
1400
Watches
These were devices people could easily carry and they functioned through the use of a network of coiled springs. -
Quartz Clocks
These clocks ushered in the digital era where the use of batteries alongside a quartz crystal took the place of coils and springs. These clocks typically show the time using numbers instead of hands on a face.